Yeast cells can adapt their growth in response to the nutritional environment. Glucose is the favorite carbon source of Saccharomyces cerevisiae that prefers a fermentative metabolism despite the presence of oxygen. When glucose is consumed, the cell switches to the aerobic metabolism of ethanol, during the so-called diauxic shift. The difference between fermentative and aerobic growth is in part mediated by a regulatory mechanism called glucose repression. During glucose derepression a profound gene transcriptional reprogramming occurs and genes involved in the utilization of alternative carbon sources are expressed...

The Sac10b family proteins, also named as Alba, are small, basic, nucleic acid-binding proteins widely distributed in archaea. They possess divergent physiological functions such as binding to both DNA and RNA with a high affinity and involving in genomic DNA compaction, RNA transactions and transcriptional regulations. The structures of many Sac10b family proteins from hyperthermophilic archaea have been reported, while those from thermophilic and mesophilic archaea are largely unknown. As was pointed out, the homologous members from thermophilic and mesophilic archaea may have functions different from the hyperthermophilic members...

A rice physiological disorder makes mature panicle keep erect with empty grains termed as "straighthead." Straighthead causes yield losses and is a serious threat to rice production worldwide. Here, a new study of association mapping was conducted to identify QTL involved in straighthead. A subset of 380 accessions was selected from the USDA rice core collection and genotyped with 72 genome-wide SSR markers. An optimal model implemented with principle components (PCs) was used in this association mapping. As a result, five markers were identified to be significantly associated with straighthead...

Jennifer Nichols is a Principal Investigator at the Cambridge Stem Cell Institute and Department of Physiology, Development and Neuroscience at the University of Cambridge, UK. Her lab works on lineage segregation and the establishment of pluripotency in the mammalian embryo. In 2017 she was awarded the British Society for Developmental Biology's Cheryll Tickle Medal, given to mid-career female scientists with outstanding achievements in developmental biology. We met Jenny in her Cambridge office to talk about pluripotency in vitro and in vivo, the importance of collaboration in her career path, and what playing a musical instrument has in common with research...

INTRODUCTION: Rhabdomyolysis is a syndrome characterized by muscle necrosis followed by release of intracellular muscle contents into the circulation. Exertional rhabdomyolysis (ER) occurs in response to nonfamiliar and/or excessive, prolonged, or repetitive exercises, with eccentric characteristics. In military populations, due to the type of intense, all out physical loads, ER is a significant threat, particularly when training under heat stress. However, many other etiologies exist, and clinical presentations vary greatly...

OBJECTIVE: Altered body structures that occur with the loss of a lower limb can impact mobility and quality of life. Specifically, biomechanical changes that result from wearing a prosthesis have been associated with an increased risk of falls or joint degeneration, as well as increased energy demands. While previous studies describing these outcomes are typically limited by number of outcome measures and/or small, diverse patient groups, recent military conflicts present a unique opportunity to collect outcomes from a relatively homogenous, active patient population with limb loss...

Construction workers are subjected to heat stress because of the hot environment, physically demanding tasks, and/or personal protective equipment. A tailor-made cooling vest that protects construction workers from heat-related injuries was developed. The purpose of the study is to examine a newly designed cooling vest's effectiveness in alleviating physiological and perceptual strain in a hot and humid environment. Twelve male participants performed two trials, i.e., cooling vest (VEST) and control (CON) in a climatic chamber controlled at 37°C temperature, 60% relative humidity, 0...

Cross-country skiers change technique depending on terrain (incline) and effort (work rate; speed at a particular incline or resistance). The literature is not unequivocal about the influence of incline or speed on the choice of technique, i.e., which of these act as a 'control parameter'. Identifying task related control parameters for spontaneous technique shifts assists elucidating which mechanisms are active for triggering technique transitions. The aim of this study was to investigate whether speed or incline acted as such control parameter for technique shifts during classic style roller skiing...

The Sydney Heart Bank (SHB) is one of the largest human heart tissue banks in existence. Its mission is to provide high-quality human heart tissue for research into the molecular basis of human heart failure by working collaboratively with experts in this field. We argue that, by comparing tissues from failing human hearts with age-matched non-failing healthy donor hearts, the results will be more relevant than research using animal models, particularly if their physiology is very different from humans. Tissue from heart surgery must generally be used soon after collection or it significantly deteriorates...

At the end of the nineteenth century, approaches from experimental physiology made inroads into embryological research. A new generation of embryologists felt urged to study the mechanisms of organ formation. This new program, most prominently defended by Wilhelm Roux (1850-1924), was called Entwicklungsmechanik. Named variously as "causal embryology", "physiological embryology" or "developmental mechanics", it catalyzed the movement of embryology from a descriptive science to one exploring causal mechanisms...

Plant growth promoting bacteria (PGPB) may help to reduce the toxicity of heavy metals on plants growing in polluted soils. In this work, Sulla coronaria inoculated with four Cd resistant bacteria (two Pseudomonas spp. and two Rhizobium sullae) were cultivated in hydroponic conditions treated by Cd; long time treatment 50 µM CdCl2 for 30 days and short time treatment; 100 µM CdCl2 for 7 days. Results showed that inoculation with Cd resistant PGPB enhanced plant biomass, thus shoot and root dry weights of control plants were enhanced by 148 and 35% respectively after 7 days...

Many ribonucleoproteins (RNPs), which are comprised of non-coding RNA and associated proteins, are involved in essential cellular processes such as translation and pre-mRNA splicing. One class of RNP is the small Cajal body-specific RNP (scaRNP), which contributes to the biogenesis of small nuclear RNPs (snRNPs) that are central components of the spliceosome. Three scaRNAs are internally processed, generating stable nucleolus-enriched RNAs of unknown function. Here we provide data that these RNAs become part of RNPs we term regulatory RNPs (regRNPs)...

In the mammalian central nervous system (CNS) GABAA receptors (GABAARs) mediate neuronal inhibition and are important therapeutic targets. GABAARs are composed of 5 subunits, drawn from 19 proteins, underpinning expression of 20-30 GABAAR subtypes. In the CNS these isoforms are heterogeneously expressed and exhibit distinct physiological and pharmacological properties. We report the discovery of S44819, a novel tricyclic oxazolo-2,3-benzodiazepine-derivative, that selectively inhibits α5-subunit-containing GABAARs (α5-GABAARs)...

Human activities can enhance the frequency, intensity and occurrence of harmful algal blooms (HABs). Engineered nanoparticles (ENPs), contained in many materials, will inevitably enter coastal waters and thus cause unpredictable impacts on aquatic organisms. However, knowledge of the influence of ENPs on HAB species is still lacking. In this study, we examined the effects of titanium dioxide nanoparticles (nTiO2), zinc oxide nanoparticles (nZnO) and aluminum oxide nanoparticles (nAl2O3) on physiological changes and paralytic shellfish poisoning toxins (PSTs) production of Alexandrium tamarense...

PURPOSE: To review factors that impact the effect of hot environments on the human body in order to develop a conceptual model of human biological response. METHODS: The organizing concept for the model development was the multilevel integration of three major factors, exposure to heat, sensitivity and adaptive capacity, and the heat stress response. Exposure of a vulnerable occupational group was used to illustrate the components of the model. FINDINGS: Components of this framework include the hazard (environmental heat stress), vulnerability factors (workplace exposure, sensitivity and adaptive capacity), and the heat stress response...

Beneficial effects of silicon (Si) on growth and development have been witnessed in several plants. Nevertheless, studies on roses are merely reported. Therefore, the present investigation was carried out to illustrate the impact of Si on photosynthesis, antioxidant defense and leaf proteome of rose under salinity stress. In vitro-grown, acclimatized Rosa hybrida 'Rock Fire' were hydroponically treated with four treatments, such as control, Si (1.8 mM), NaCl (50 mM), and Si+NaCl. After 15 days, the consequences of salinity stress and the response of Si addition were analyzed...

Mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) cascades are highly conserved signaling modules in eukaryotes, including yeasts, plants and animals. MAPK cascades are responsible for protein phosphorylation during signal transduction events, and typically consist of three protein kinases: MAPK, MAPK kinase, and MAPK kinase kinase. In this current study, we identified a total of 12 FvMAPK, 7 FvMAPKK, 73 FvMAPKKK, and one FvMAPKKKK genes in the recently published Fragaria vesca genome sequence. This work reported the classification, annotation and phylogenetic evaluation of these genes and an assessment of conserved motifs and the expression profiling of members of the gene family were also analyzed here...

Telmisartan, an angiotensin receptor blocker (ARB), is indicated for the treatment of essential hypertension. This study aimed to develop a mechanistic model of telmisartan drug effect in human using non-invasive markers. Data were acquired from a previous study where telmisartan 80 mg was given once daily for 6 days. Systolic (SBP) and diastolic blood pressure (DBP) and heart rate (HR) were measured before dosing for day 1 to 5 and serially after the last dose. Mean arterial pressure (MAP) and pulse pressure (PP) were calculated from SBP and DBP...

The medial part of the olfactory tubercle (OT) is a brain structure located at the interface of the reward and olfactory system. It is closely related to pheromone-rewards, natural reinforcement, addiction and many other behaviors. However, the structure of the anatomic circuitry of the medial part of the OT is still unclear. In the present study, the medial part of the OT was found to be highly connected with a wide range of brain areas with the help of the pseudorabies virus tracing tool. In order to further investigate the detailed connections for specific neurons, another tracing tool - rabies virus was utilized for D1R-cre and D2R-cre mice...